


Without Evidence...I know

by lw531



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-26 23:35:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18292448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lw531/pseuds/lw531
Summary: Having worked through grief through the distance between them, Texas provides Liz the opportunity to show how she's changed. How will Max respond to the hints she's dropping?





	1. Who gets the room?

**Author's Note:**

> The mature chapters are their own story.

Max and Liz had so many almost moments in "Songs About Texas," what happened in the moments we didn't see on screen?  
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I DO NOT OWN ROSWELL NEW MEXICO THE TV SHOW, OR THE CHARACTERS. I AM USING SOME OF THE LANGUAGE AND SUMMARIZING SOME OF THE EPISODE “SONGS ABOUT TEXAS” TO SET UP ANOTHER APPROACH TO THE SCENE. 

On the way to the bar Maria was searching for, Liz contemplated the deeper sadness Max was carrying. Even though she didn’t give Isobel the shot, she still carried remorse for the result of her actions, that she had put anyone at risk of harming themselves because of something she created. That remorse, for the past seven weeks, had been forcing her to revisit her grief and anger towards Max, given her own flaws.  
As they sat at the bar, Max’s refusal to take a drink moved her towards even more compassion. After a decade of torturing himself with a secret; a decade of she not knowing, he was on the brink of losing the one person he had dedicated himself to protecting. In him, she saw the grief she herself had had, regarding losing Rosa. She couldn’t ignore that. After everything, they had a sense of guilt and shame and grief in common, in many ways, her actions had evened the playing field. And while she was working on fixing a problem she started, that work had allowed to develop a working friendship with Michael someone who had entrusted her with his life as well as Isobel’s. The sense of loss they all shared was deeper and, she had to admit something bigger was at play.

As she and Max headed to the hotel, she told Max, “I’m so glad Maria pulled you up to sing.”  
“I can’t carry a tune,” he chuckled, “but she didn’t give me much of a choice.”  
“Well,” Liz says as they approached the door, “it was good to see you smile, even if for a little bit.”  
As Max followed Liz into the lobby of Silver Saddle Motel, he hoped they would have enough rooms to divide the pairs. Liz was being too kind to him that night and, as much as he was grateful for it, he couldn’t see past the pain of being so distant from Isobel. He knew that must have been a motivating factor for Liz--even though Isobel was a stubborn pain in the ass who tricked Valenti into giving her the shot--given the reports from Michael over the past few weeks whenever he would come by the pods, he knew she was working tirelessly towards finding a cure for Is. After all she suffered at the hands of his sister, she was doing her best to help her. There was no way they deserved that.  
Taking in the teenager at the lobby desk, Max was concerned, especially when he says the “Jalapeno room was real spicy.” Looking at Liz’s shocked face, undoubtedly the stereotype of spicy in addition to th4e cultural appropriation of jalapeno must have been offensive as fuck. Even he was uncomfortable by the situation. Looking at her he says, “I’ll sleep in the truck.”  
“Don’t be silly,” she says turning towards him, “it’s fine, we’re both adults…”  
Still, he didn’t trust himself with her, he didn’t trust that he wouldn’t surrender to the yearning and place both of them in a more awkward position. Then, the clerk says, “Never mind, found another room, the Alamo room,” asking after they both leaned onto the counter, “which one of you is into mass carnage?”  
“I’ll take that one,” Max says, “thanks,” wanting to speed up an already awkward interaction. Racism, grief, sexual tension all at once in a motel lobby, he wanted to get as far away from the discomfort as possible. Turning to Liz, he says, “it sounds like the jalapeno room has more room for you and Maria anyway.”  
“Oh,” Liz says trying to keep her cool and hide her disappointment, “okay…”though she wasn’t sure she’d see Maria that night. She thought to herself, Michael, Maria, and alcohol tends to lead to something Maria pursues though remorseful in the morning. And she needs that distraction without interruptions.  
“Your rooms,” the clerk says, “ are on opposite sides of the courtyard, who do I walk to their room first?”  
“Liz,” Max says turning towards the clerk,” and then you can take me to my room.”  
“Sure,” the clerk says leading them on their way. Liz’s room wasn’t too far from the lobby, which made their first walk short. On arriving to the jalapeno room, LIz blinked a few times at the tremendous amount of red in the room. She had walked into a stereotype. Spicy wasn’t the right word to cover the room. Tacky was more like it. As soon as she walks in, she says, “Thank you,” to the clerk, and “Goodnight” to Max, without being able to control the sigh of disappointment.  
On the way to his room, he noticed a set of swings in the middle of the motel’s courtyard. Unexpected to find at a motel, then again, maybe it was a place that people stayed passing through. The cheesy lights decorating the patio was a little much, he thought to myself. And his room appeared equally as cheesy. The only carnage had been in the paintings, and the sheets, the curtains looked like something out of a child’s room.  
Once in bed, he couldn’t shake his concern for Isobel, or his grief for Liz enough to get to sleep. It’s like the conversation he and Liz had about never being comfortable had jinxed him into another night of sleep. After tossing and turning for about an hour, he put his clothes back on and went outside to sit in the swing. While there, even though it was a little cold, he found a sense of peace he couldn’t find in the room. The cold open air cradled him into easier a settled mind that, while still conflicted, was less burdened in sitting on a swing than laying on a bed.  
On seeing Liz walk towards him, his heart skipped a beat. Of course, she would have a hard time sleeping, between Maria’s disappointment in not finding someone who could heal her mother and her own conflicted emotions about not yet finding a cure for Isobel. Even sleepy and a little drunk, she took his breath away.  
“Couldn’t sleep,” Liz asks on finding Max on the swings in the courtyard.  
“No,” he answered as she pulled up the swing next to him, “you?”  
“I couldn’t get comfortable,” she answered, contemplating whether or not she should admit that part of the reason was that he wasn’t in or near her room. Sitting there swinging in momentary silence, she couldn’t help but think about how easy it’d be to kiss him if his sick sister, her friend’s sick mom, and her dead sister didn’t act as emotional barriers between them.  
“I’m sorry you didn’t come here for what you came for,” she says as she swung her swing slightly towards his.  
He shrugged it off, “Shouldn’t have let myself be the hoping kind of person.”  
“Hope gets us up every morning,” she says, “I think of Maria, and all she’s suffered because of what her mom may or may not know about aliens, and she can, after her loss, just get up and sing. She has no one else, and look at her. Her hope, sometimes, is contagious…”  
“Because she doesn’t sit by like I have,” he says. Then he begins to talk about the lives he didn’t save and how, if he had more practice, he could control it. “My gift can be a hell of a burden,” he admits to himself.  
She then makes a reference to the Henry IV quote he had recited the night of prom, hoping to inch towards showing compassion, and tenderness moved that he, like her, struggles with wanting to help heal people. His smile in response melts her and she grabs at the rope of his swing. She leans towards him and says, “there’s no guarantee that--that anything we try works,” adding, “that’s what hope is for, to help us believe that we can.”  
Feeling her body close to him, because she pulled herself, via the swing there, warmed him in ways that he didn’t feel his heart deserved to be warmed. He couldn’t stop himself from smoothing her hair, “Hmm,” he says, “but do I deserve that kind of hope?”  
“We all do,” she answered letting go of his swing, the cold of the night seeping through her sweater.  
Looking at her shiver, he got up and offered her his coat, “May I?” he asks before wrapping it around her.  
She nodded and when he began thanking her for what she was doing for Isobel, she stood up and grabbed his hand, comparing his behavior with hers over that summer. “I too would have done anything for my sister, Max,” she says looking at his hands and, as he attempted to pull away, she added, “you were so young and placed in an incredibly difficult position, I don’t doubt I would have done something similar.”  
“But I lied to you for ten years--  
“Because of that difficult position,” she interjected, pulling herself closer to him, “there were people who could have been killed if you had taken more responsibility for that well-intended yet immature decision, “ she concluded as she held his gaze and raised her hand to smooth his face. In their weeks apart, she had bargained with herself regarding all of her emotions and she couldn’t find a sense of peace with staying angry or acting indifferent.  
“I’m so sorry,” he says leaning his head onto hers.  
“I know,” she replied, wrapping her arms around him, “I know.”  
After a couple of beats, taking in the aroma of her hair, a mixture of bar, desert, and minty shampoo, he broke apart from her embrace, “do you want to try getting comfortable again?”  
She nodded, “can you walk me to my room?”  
He nodded as he followed there, second from the far edge of the building. As she opened the door, he couldn’t help but laugh again, “Who could ever sleep in this room?” he asks her.  
“I know,” she laughed, “red is an alarming color...white people.”  
“Yeah,” he agreed, “white humans.”  
She nudged him as she walks more fully into the room.  
He used that moment to say, “Goodnight, Liz,” as he turns around to walk towards his.  
“Can you stay with me,” she asks taking off her shoes, “I know we both have a lot on our minds and I feel like you being here will help me sleep better…”  
Despite wanting to give her space, she was giving him reasons not to, insisting on it. He begrudgingly stayed, sitting down on the bed as she rolled over to give him space. “I mean, look at this,” she says holding up the blanket, “it’s tiny.”  
“Do they have others?” he asks getting up and going to the closet.  
“Nope,” she answers as he found it as she did earlier that night.  
“That sucks,” he says, “at least the Alamo room blanket fit the bed.”  
“Ha!” she says as he returned to sit on the bed, “so you should have let me stay in that room!”  
“But the bed was smaller,” he defends, “my ankles reached the end of it.”  
“For a chaparrita like me? I would have been fine,” she says as she leaned onto his shoulder, “look at how tiny I am next to you.”  
“Yeah,” he breathed looking at the inches of length between her legs and his, then turning to find her nestle her head into the nape of his neck.  
“Por lo menos,” she says pulling his jacket around her, “your jacket makes up the difference.”  
“Ha,” he says looking down at her wrapping her top half with his jacket, “it does…”  
He started setting the scene of a story that could take place in a random, cheesy yet a little seedy motel like theirs, Liz’s laughter and “mmhmm’s” moving it forward until her hum signals her falling asleep. After everything they could be friends, he thought to himself, she was insisting on being that much. He closes his eyes and begins breathing at her pace, to slow his heart and find a little peace before the long drive in the morning.


	2. Before I never leave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Texas, what happens after Liz falls asleep next to Max? This story imagines what their conversation on the way back from Texas could have been like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What happened in the ride between Texas and visiting Isabel? Told from both Max and Liz POV, a canon divergent set up of their first kiss and what happened immediately after their kiss.

He awoke with the sun peeking in red through the jalapeno curtains. To his left, Liz had curled into a ball, under the jalapeno throw, his jacket somehow making its way to the other side of her. He grabbed it and decided to see if he could find Arizona, the fake healing woman, and get more answers about the symbol from her flier.

Liz awoke to find that she had somehow managed to sleep and that Max was gone. Disappointed, she went into the bathroom to at least wash her face and rinse her mouth. Some of her makeup had run and she perused the cabinets for a little soap. Once she found it, she tried her best to clean her raccoon eyes. She took the washcloth and wiped parts of her that smelled. While she didn't know where Max was, she had a sneaking suspicion he didn't just leave her there. As she folded up the jalapeno blanket, she heard a knock at the door and his voice saying, "Are you awake?"

"Yeah," she answered unlocking the door, "come in."

As he brought more of the sun into the room with him, she noticed that he had bags under his eyes, "Did you sleep?" she asks as he walks in holding what looked like hot coffee cups in either hand.

He shrugged and answered, "A little," adding, "I went to go see if I could talk to Arizona about the symbol on her flier."

"Oh," she says, "and?"

"Dead end, kind of," he says, "I can tell you on the way home."

Once they arrived in Michael's truck, Max sent him a text message stating they were leaving. Then, as they both got in, he began narrating his visit with Arizona as she was packing up. "While Arizona was watching me pay her with the cash in my pocket, my belt, and my jacket, the elder woman she was with told her to leave-

"You gave her a strip tease?" Liz asks as they got on the highway, "Jealous!"

He laughed, as embarrassment rose to his cheeks, "yeah, she was bummed to leave the striptease."

He continued telling her the story of the healer woman, and how excited he had felt once he knew there was someone like him. As she inched over closer to him, he took a beat because her closeness was arousing, especially after she took his arm and wrapped it around hers. "Liz?" he asks looking down at her for a moment.

"I'm listening," she breathed, "there was a woman, like you, who could heal but didn't speak…"

"Yeah," he says, as he felt her weight against him get heavier, "but she passed around the time we came out of our pods. She says, the day before she died, that because 'he arrived she could leave,' and it's not clear if she's talking about me, or…"

He looked down at her and found that she was sleeping again. He continued the rest of the drive in silence, contemplating the bittersweet clue he had just gained. As they crossed the state line, the desert's open space remained the only constant. The unmanicured land looked as vast and mysterious as his unrecovered past. He thought out loud, will I ever have the right to hope?"

"Yes," Liz breathed smoothing her far hand on his leg.

"You're awake?"

She nodded, sitting up, "I didn't realize fall asleep," she thought out loud, "I must respond well to your warmth."

"We're almost back," he says, "do you mean if I check on Isobel first?"

She nodded, saying, "Yes, of course," asking, "do you visit her every day?"

"I try to," he says, "I know she can't hear me, but it helps me. It helps the pain feel less and," he says as he turned toward the cave's exit, "as you recommended, it helps me hurt less and forgive her."

"Huh," she says moved by the advice of hers he followed, "that makes sense. As you remember, I visited Rosa in the cemetery on arriving," she says taking in the morning bright sky, "I've visited a few more times since learning about Maria's mom, Mimi. Knowing that she knew Isobel's secret, that Mimi thought she had a beautiful destiny, visiting her I can talk to her about what I had hoped for her," she concluded, "it gives me comfort to imagine talking to her and repairing what time didn't allow us to repair."

Max was speechless as she pulled up near the cave. He remained silent until they entered the cave and he repeated the concluding parts of his story.

She walks out of the cave, leaving them peace, afraid that they'd never find a cure. Learning that he had kept vigil on her for the bulk of the time Isobel was in the pod, deserve more than the "I'm sorry," she gave him. As much as she wanted to encourage his hope, she didn't have the confidence to fulfill her part of maintaining it. Hearing him insist on trusting her, believing in her prompted her to tell him the mistake he was making. "I'm not the same person I was ten years ago…"

And, as she explained the reasons why she couldn't look at him. Every time she tried, all she found was a person who looked at her like she was perfect and she couldn't handle the pressure. And then when he interrupted her listing her faults, she couldn't help but look at him, see him and take in all the ways he saw her.

When he started talking about the reasons she spoke Spanish, she interrupted, "I think in both languages," she blurted, "and I know a lot of others do…

"Okay," he says inching towards her, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, "you always have to convince everyone you're the smartest person in the world when everyone knows…"

"No, she says, closing the gap between them, "I don't..."

"But you do," he says continuing to the list the ways she tries to be better than others and live up to an ideal, all the while stumbling.

She buried her face in his chest, wanting to not bear witness to his ease in speaking about the depth of his love for her. And when he says, "with just evidence," he lifted her eyes towards him and says, "I just know."

She wrapped her arms around him, wanting to laugh, cry, and shout all at once. Holding him was all she could do to keep from doing either.

When he says, "C'mon, I'll take you home," he says grabbing her hand from behind him.

Despite his attempt to pull her, she stayed in her place and, instead pulled her back towards him, stretching up a little further to kiss him.

Shocked, it took him a couple of beats to return the kiss and pull her in closer. He felt the sun warmer just then and surrendered to all the ways her hands traveling his body made him feel. He also allowed his hands to travel her back and her sides all the ways he thought he could only dream of. Even as they parted for air, he returned to kissing or her him in ways he could no longer keep track of. He thought he couldn't love her more, or want her more. "Why?" he asks her when his lips and tongue grew weary of taking her in.

Her eyes took in the way the sun made them his almost honey-colored. In them, she saw her lab partner, the boy who improved her otherwise devastating prom night, and the man who held onto the potential of what they, together, could have been if forces beyond their control didn't tear them apart. "Because there weren't any more reasons to stop fighting what I've been feeling for you, she answered him," I have been wanting to explore my otherwise ignored feelings for you for days."

"Feelings?" he asks as the corners of his lips defied gravity. "For days?" He asks as she closed her eyes and lowered her head. As surprised as he was about the way she took him in, he was equally surprised by the emotions she expressed.

In response, she kept her eyes close but nodded her head. Giving him an Eskimo kiss, she asks leaning her head onto his chin, "Was it worth the wait?"

"Yes," he answered, lifting her chin to look at her eyes.

Once she opened them, he held her gaze steady and says, "but let's not wait again, okay? No more waiting ever.."

She laughed before he took his lips into hers. It felt good to grab the back of his hair, to feel his body against hers. Thinking about what it would be like to not have clothes separate them, she remembered the time they had spent away, "Max," she says parting from him, "we should probably go…"

"Yeah," he sighed smoothing his hand against her hair, "you probably need to go home-

"Take a shower," she says putting her hand on his heart, "get ready for work…"

"Oh," he says, frowning.

His frown hit her in the gut, she wanted to tell him she was going to check on the serum for Isobel, but she didn't want to get his hopes up. As she got into the passenger's side, she asks, "Why didn't you drive your car?"

"Because," he started walking around to the driver's side, "my jeep needs repairs."

"Ah," she says as they pulled onto the road, "how old is it?"

"Pretty old," he laughed as she put her hand on his leg, "but it carries a lot of memories for me…"

"Hmm," Liz breathed, "I lo-" she caught herself before she says love, "you are so sentimental…"

"Yeah, I pine for a girl for ten years," he chuckled turning towards her.

"The luckiest girl," she says, smoothing her hand against his leg.

He adjusted himself, aroused by the way she was touching him, clearing his throat, he says shifting attention from the dirty thoughts brewing, "what did you have planned today?"

"Probably telling my dad how it went," she began, "with Maria...and you."

"And me?"

"Yeah," she says, "he'll love that we're...finally."

"Finally?"

She nodded, "he'd been rooting for you since that day you told me knowing that you loved me was the most important thing."

"You talked to him about me?"

"Oh yeah," she says, "I had to tell someone about how confused I was-I made it about mixed signals and time passing, but yeah. Maria's gonna love this story."

"Even Maria knew?"

"Since I arrived," she says as they drove into downtown. "She was asking about the chemistry. I told her I thought you were ignoring the spark, and that the signals have been mixed. Of course," she remarked, "it was easy to blame on your...on Jenna, given the drive-in."

"I felt so bad," he says as they pulled in, "she ended it because I called her a port in the storm and you the hurricane-"

"Max!" she gasped, unbuckling her seatbelt and turning towards him, "You didn't."

He laughed and nodded. Pulling her to him, he whispered in her ear, "I was so lost in you."

She giggled into the nape of his neck as he kissed the nape of hers.

"Oh, Max," she breathed as his hands traveled to the bottom frame of her bra, "that tickles."

"I should let you go then," he says lifting his head from her.

"Though I don't want you to," she says smoothing her hand against his cheek.

"And I don't want to," he echoed.

"I should go before…"

"Before..."

"Before I never leave," she says before slipping out of the passenger's seat.

 

Please review!


	3. Waking Isabel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liz returns to the cave with the serum, how does Isabel react to waking up? to learning Max & Liz are together?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this, thinking about how Max felt after waking up Isabel.

When he returns to the cave, on dropping Liz off at the Crashdown, he opened his notebook to where he had left the notes of his writing. He journaled about the events of the weekend. There was material there he felt he could turn into the novel he had always wanted. With Liz finally inviting him into her heart, the muses were screaming. He talked out loud, as though Isobel were there, thinking through the feedback she would provide him if he were. This time, she would support the idea of Liz in his life, because of how much she had been giving them over the years. Because the remorse of her actions, the remorse everyone was feeling, would move the past aside, for a new beginning. He dared to allow himself to be the hoping kind.

As he began reading outline about the darkened, hidden chambers of his heart, he heard a rustle and looked up to see Liz walking into the cave.

"Did you write that?" she asks.

He didn't know what to say, bashful that she had caught any bit of it. He walks towards her, "What are you doing here?" he asks standing up and walking towards her.

As she began to explain her work, he bent down to kiss her, "Thank you," he whispered as he parted from her lips, knowing that she was here with the serum.

"But before we try," she says setting her hands up to keep distance, "there's something I need to tell you. There have been more alien-related deaths in Roswell…

"But Isobel only backed out in 2008," he interrupted.

"Without evidence, I know that," she explains and as she pulls the serum out of her pocket, she says, "that's why I brought this."

She melted more of her silver, into which she dipped his hand, and he reached into the pod to pull Isobel out of it.

Once she was out of the pod, Isobel says, "Did you find a cure?"

"There's only one way to find out," Liz answered as she punctured the needle into Isobel's heart.

Isobel immediately felt her strength coming back. She pulled the blanket Max wrapped around her tighter. "Oh, God," she gasped, "I feel it working...thank you, Liz!"

Liz smiled at her, turning her eyes to Max as Isobel stumbled to stand by herself.

Feeling a temperature change in the air, Isobel asks, "how long was I in there?"

"Six weeks," Max answered as Liz reached to grab his hand.

Liz added, "Michael and I have been working on it during my time off. He didn't rest until we…

Isobel reached for Liz with one arm, taking her in a tight embrace, "I'm so--thank you so--"

"It's okay, Isobel," Liz says taking her in, unintentionally breaking apart from Max, "where should we take you to get you dressed? We can't just take you home like that…"

"I have a change of clothes for you at home," Max says taking in the scene of the two most important women in his life hugging each other, "and then we can think about how to get you to Noah. He's been so pissed…"

"Pissed?"

"He didn't believe you were in rehab," Max explained as they shuffled outside of the cave, "and we couldn't tell him where you were soo…"

Isobel sighed, "I promised I wouldn't lie to him anymore…" she thought out loud, "and now I have to--again."

"We can plan it out in the truck-

"Where's your jeep, Max?" she asks as they neared Michael's truck.

"I need to take it to the shop," he answered, "I'm borrowing Michael's-

"Yeah," Liz interrupted, "Michael spent the night with Maria and left us to fend for ourselves in Texas."

"Texas?" Isobel repeated shifting her stare from Max to Liz and back again.

"Yeah," Liz says, "long story."

"Can I call you later?" Max asks Liz.

She nodded as she walks towards him and kissed him goodbye.

As Liz walks to her car, Max watched her taking in all the events of the weekend, hopeful with what tomorrow would bring. He let his mind wander into the memory of Liz's first kiss until Isobel's throat clearing brought him back to the present. "I guess it is a long story…"

On the way home, Max caught Isobel up, starting with Liz's kiss, going to the Native healer who let him know there was a fourth alien who may have been responsible for other deaths besides Rosa's and Michael's heartbreak between Alex and Maria. Isobel took it all in fairly quickly, not asking questions.

While Max had considered not telling her everything, given what happened before she went into the pod, he felt it pertinent to be completely honest.

When she walks into his house, she directs herself to where he says he keeps her clothes and then went to take a shower.

In the meanwhile, Max pulls out a change of clothes for him, a pillow and a blanket so he can sleep on the couch. As Isobel walks out of the bathroom, she finds Max setting up the couch as a bed. "I can sleep on the couch," she suggests.

He shakes his head no and says, "I'll be fine out here," adding, "it's better than being camped out next to you…"

"Oh, Max," she begins, "I really thought-

"No need to explain," he interrupts walking towards her, "I'm just so glad you're here. I missed you…"

He takes her in and tries to catching up on six weeks of hugs.

"I'm scared, Max," she admits before they break apart, "I don't want to hurt anyone anymore."

"Well," he says, "knowing there's a fourth alien; knowing they're the source of some violence, and knowing there was an alien who died before we walked out of our pods, there's more to us than meets the eye-that reminds me, I should text Michael and let him know you're here."

He pulls out his phone to text Michael, and watches Isobel dry her hair.

"I want to get back to the world slowly," she says. "I need to figure out what I am going to tell Noah...I want to start on the right foot without telling him…

Max shrugs, "whatever you need, I'm here-we all are."

"Thanks, Max," she sighs, "I just wish I would know that he would love me as much as Liz loves you-

"Wait," he interrupts smiling, "what?"

"Oh," Isobel says covering her mouth, then saying, "she hasn't said it yet?"

"No," he says through his smile, bowing his head to keep from having Isobel see him blush, "not yet. We just kissed today…"

"Just kissed?" Isobel asks walking towards him, "You have it soo bad."

He looks up to find her smiling from ear to ear. He rolls his eyes, and says, "Michael will come by to see you tomorrow," adding, "he's working his feelings out with Alex…"

"I am gone six weeks and my brothers finally get the guts to find love," she says turning towards the room, "maybe they'll stop being so mopey-

"Maybe," he says, "see you in the morning, Is."

"See you in the morning," she says as she closes the door.

WIth Isobel settled, Max takes a shower, letting the water pound on the knots on his back. He would finally be able to sleep to dream of another day of holding Liz close to him.

OoO

Please review! What do you think of how I wrote Max & Isabel?


	4. Not all Sisters Were Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Liz arrives home, how do her dad and Maria react to the news that she and Max are an item?   
> Maria and Liz take a walk, this story explores the #Malex events in "I don't want to miss a thing" if Maria overheard.

AUTHOR'S NOTE - I DO NOT OWN THE CHARACTERS OF ROSWELL NEW MEXICO OR THE CONTENT THAT'S SIMILAR.

We don't really get to see Liz talk about how she got to feel the way she felt about Max with others, and how does Maria feel about what happened; what would she have said if she knew about #Malex?

Liz calls Maria on arriving home, knowing that as much as Maria is her own savior, she wants to show up for her better. "Hey," she says, "how are you?"

"You free for a walk?" she asks.

"Yeah," Liz says, "you want me to meet you, or?"

"I'll drive to you," Maria answers.

On the way there, Maria contemplates the events of the weekend. Sleeping with Guerin again, as much as it was a mistake, not all of the mistake was because of the alcohol or her resistance to being close to anyone. She knew what Michael meant to Alex, ever since his return. She wasn't unaware of the energy between them, a mixture of love, grief, fear, and anger. Michael found comfort in her, without words, something which she appreciated at night when she'd drunk enough to allow herself to need someone. Then the sun rose and all the fear, self-protection he exercised as a norm of being abandoned and abused for as long as he had come to the surface and she had to protect herself from someone else to save. More than anything, she wanted her mother. She wanted her mother so she could at least use the wings she had and make different choices, lead a less imprisoned life.

She finds Liz sitting in the Crashdown, still open for business, drinking a milkshake. "Hey," she said on walking in, "still up for a walk."

Liz nods and called out, "Me Voy, Pa," before following Maria out of the Crashdown.

"Before I talk about my...night," Maria says, "how did you behave around, Max?"

"Well," Liz begins, "I put myself out there, you know, I channeled my inner Maria courage, but with patience. Is being in rehab really messed him up," as they turn a corner, Liz continues, "once you left us, I would find subtle ways to touch him, I convinced him to help me sleep in the one hotel room I chose. I made it clear that the spark, after everything, was there."

"Look at you taking down that armor," Maria interjects.

"Yeah," Liz agrees, "it takes the moment where he tells me he loves me flaws and all--which were much better than I can ever do it justice--to pull him into me and kiss him."

"Kiss him?" Maria asks, "You just kissed…"

"Well," Liz answers tilting her head to one side, "we were in the desert, by that place we took an adventure a decade ago," she stops trying to find a way to explain why they were there," Max wanted to stretch his legs. I told him I didn't know why or how he could love me or have faith in me given how much we've changed…"

"Yeah," Maria agrees, "you have changed…"

"And then he gives this epic speech, Maria, like the one in the movies where the guy tells the girl he sees everything about her. The one we write for ourselves in our darkest moments when we try to convince ourselves we're strong enough-but better, Maria," Liz says stopping her feet, "so much better."

"And then you kiss him," Maria summarizes.

"It was more than a kiss," Liz says, "out in the desert, we took the other into us, and sometimes," she reflects, "I don't know if I could love him like that."

"Like you did without realizing in high school?" Maria asks continuing to walk.

Liz follows and asks, "Excuse me?"

Maria nods, "Sometimes," and correcting herself begins again and says, "Most of the time you have no idea...always wanting to see the good in people what greatness you miss in others. Whenever you were with Max, even just talking or working, like the moon and ocean you two were. Kyle was just a boat thinking he was making the waves…"

"I hope you find that, Maria," Liz says, "if that's what you want."

"Y'know why Michael's so easy to fall into," she asks herself and Liz.

Before Liz can answer, Maria responds to her own question, "because of the secrets we both have to hide. Because of the love we rarely get--me for being the only black girl for miles and him...he for never knowing family outside of Max & Is and even then, they're not really family. Is getting married; Max pined for you. He, like me, has no one for his everyday stuff. And Alex," she sighs, "Alex doesn't either which makes all of this hard. Alex's dad hates him and his brothers are indifferent to him,"

"I know," Liz says.

Maria continues, "And I love Alex, like a brother...but none of us speak, not really...well, they didn't until today."

"Until today," Liz asks.

Maria nods and begins to summarize bearing witness to Michael and Alex talking in the garage yard. As soon as Alex declared that he loved Michael and felt that Michael loved him, despite how little they knew of each other, she had frozen in her place behind Michael's trailer. She heard them as they moved towards it and ran towards her car before she could see or hear what they were going to do to each other.

Liz, knowing that Alex knew given the update she received from Kyle, and knowing what Michael hid under his trailer, wondered if Michael decided to tell the boy he loved, like Max had, his secret. "Oh, Maria," Liz says wrapping her arm around her, "that sucks."

"And I don't want to drink this pain away," Maria says, "I am tired of numbing how lonely I am. And I'm not sure having someone will heal that-I am not saying that at all," she concludes, "I just see and hear all of y'all and I am here, slowly losing my one constant."

"Maria…"

"It's true," she says, "despite our friendship you left without looking back consumed by your grief-and I know, I know we hashed that out and that you apologized-but I can't just up and go. Taking care of my mom, keeping up the bar and the fortune telling," she begins, "has somehow trapped me here, and I feel like I have every reason to leave but no way to get anywhere I could go…

"And if," she thinks out loud, "if my mom gets better, then leaving won't be running away from pain," stopping in her own tracks, "it will just be me learning the person I could be if I could just be for me."

Liz stays silent, knowing she had run after Rosa died, to be the person she needed to be for herself. Her selfishness gave her a sense of purpose and way to exist in the world that few without parents had. As much as her mother has not been around, her father was her anchor, her father, in never leaving, gave her a place to return to. Nothing she could say would change the reality of the situation. The happiness of the day, of finally allowing herself to explore her feelings for Max, is bittersweet given the looming threat of a fourth alien.

Maria has to be her own savior, and like she told Michael, she has been every time, but that must be exhausting as she watches the people she grew up with move on without her. And the moving on part, she has to admit, has been selfish. "I hope," Liz says, "I somehow earn the right to be your friend again-

"Liz," Maria says as they head back taking a longer route.

"Seriously," Liz says, "as much as I get angry about the police and ICE and all that...I can leave-I could, if I wanted and he wanted-take my dad with me. You're right. And I know," she continues taking her friend's hand, "I know you can save yourself, but the way you-whether we realize it or not--carry all of us, that should have never been your burden to carry."

"I carried it because I love you, Liz," Maria interrupts, "you're all home to me…"

"We can do better," Liz says, "I want to do right by you. I want to see you the way you see me," she says, "I know, I know I've been selfish trying to run from the pain of losing Rosa. I know much I took for granted in doing that-how much I took for granted in always talking to you about Max this summer."

"Liz," Maria sighed.

"Just because I lost Rosa," Liz says, "doesn't mean I lost both my sisters."

They walked arm in arm the way back to the crashdown in contemplative silence, taking in what the other had said. Maria remains torn about what to do with her mother, unwilling to give up on the woman who made her who she was, as much as she aches for the freedom of what her life could be if she was unanchored. Looking at Liz, taking in what Liz had said, she's unsure of whether or not she can trust someone showing up for her the way she has for others. Liz's words do make her think about the way she uplifts others who rarely see what she's going through; she contemplates the necessity and burden of her strength and intuition, especially when others take for granted how exhausting it is.

"Let's do Karaoke soon," Liz suggests as they get to the Crashdown," even if it's just on my roof, next weekend."

Maria shrugs, "my weekends aren't yours, you know."

"Then we'll do it on yours," Liz agrees, "my workaholism can take a break from time to time.

"Wednesday, then?" Maria asks.

"Wednesday," Liz agrees as she feels her phone buzz.

"Tell Max I say hi," Maria says as she walks away backward, "and that he owes me a song."

"How do you know," Liz begins to ask as she pulls out her phone," it's Max?"

"Am I wrong?" Maria asks as she points to Liz's phone.

When Liz looks down, she sees that it is and shouts again, "Wednesday!"

"Wednesday!"

She walks inside the Crashdown, which has a few straggling customers, and checks on her dad in the back. "Como Estas, Pa?"

"How's Maria?"

"No se," Liz answers, "Mimi's getting worse y la curandera was a fake."

"Aye," her dad sighs, "y ahora?"

"I have to return a phone call to Max," Liz says, "but before I do, do you need anything?"

"No, m'ija," he says kissing her forehead, "dile he can have milkshakes on the house whenever he wants…"

"I will, Pa," Liz answers as she walks up the stairs.

Please let me know what you think...I'm writing a fan fiction piece where Maria overhears #Malex conversation in "I Don't want to miss a thing" Thank you for taking the time to read! :)


	5. I feel this

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After catching up with Maria, Liz comes home to find Max had called. While Max called about the news that Michael was telling Alex, Liz wants to know how he'll make up not dancing with her. What happens when Isabel overhears the conversation?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter had been written before "I don't want to miss a thing," as a conversation between Max, Isabel, and Liz.

After hanging up her jacket in the coat closet, she opens the fridge for something to snack and to drink. She pulls out the orange juice and then goes to the pantry to see what finger foods she can munch. Once she’s decided on a granola bar, she takes both to her room, and dials Max’s number.   
Max, finishing a grocery list given his almost barren fridge and pantry, picks up after the second ring, smiling at the sight of her name on his phone, “Hey,” he says. “Thanks for calin me back.”  
“Sorry I missed your call,” she says sitting down on a sofa, beginning to take off her shoes, “I was catching my dad up on the weekend.”  
“That’s why I’m calling,” he says, “Michael’s with Alex now, telling him the truth. Showing him his bunker…”  
“Really?” Liz asks switching her phone to her other ear to give her a free hand to unzip the other shoe. “Huh. A weekend of truth-telling”  
“Yeah,” Max says, “I was surprised…”  
“That is surprising,” Liz says, “especially after what happened to Maria…”  
“Maria?”  
“Yeah,” she says, “they weren’t gone all night doing nothing. But you don’t know that.”  
“Know what?”  
“Exactly,” she answers, sitting down on the couch with which she replaced Rosa’s bed, and beginning to take off her shoes. “You worried?”  
“No,” he answers filling up his water filter pitcher. “Not about Alex, at least,” he clarifies. “The murders, the other alien,” he pauses, pouring himself a glass of water, “I don’t know what to think or how to approach all this.”   
“Hmm,” she says walking to her bed. She puts him on speaker as she takes off her socks and her leggings. “I have faith you and Is will figure out what you need us to do,” she offers, “now that you’re willing to tell people about who you really are.”  
“Yeah,” he breathes walking over to the couch. “You know the worst things I’ve done and believe in me.”  
“Same,” she says putting her clothes in her, “our timing didn’t suck this time,” she adds.  
“No,” he chuckles, “it didn’t suck at all…”  
The silence between them fills with the joy of the morning’s kiss and the hope of what seeing each other again will bring them.   
Liz doesn’t know how to respond, not when they’re not in the same room. Then, she remembers he rejected dancing with her, “You still owe me a dance, Evans,” she says.   
“I do?”  
“Yeah,” she says reviewing the clothes in her closet for what to wear Monday, “you said no to be at the bar?”  
“Oh yeah,” he recalls, looking back at how even in company wanting to engage with him, he was acting like a wounded hermit. “Sorry about that...I wasn’t sure why you were asking me...I didn’t know.”   
“How you gonna make it up to me, Evans?”   
“Make it up to you?” he asks as he walks into his room to grab a pillow, sheets, and a blanket.   
“What did you do, Max?” Isobel asks from his bed.   
“On the phone, Is!” Max tells her.   
Liz begins to laugh at the banter that continues between them.   
“So,” Isobel says getting up and grabbing the phone from him, “Liz, what did he do?”  
On hearing Isobel’s voice, Liz throws her head back, laughing, and says, “he didn’t dance with me when I asked.  
“Figures,” Is says, “not captain obvious, is he?  
“Nope,” Liz answers, giggling.   
“Well,” Isobel says, “now you have a date to the UFO museum gala, Max...would that do?”  
“Sure,” Liz answers, trying to hold continued laughter, “I’d just need to find a dress.  
“I can help with that,” Is says, “in a couple days?”  
“Sounds good!”   
“Here you go, Max,” Is says handing his empty hand his phone, “Jeez!”   
“Thanks?”  
Isobel nods and sweeps him away with a hand.   
On returning to the living room, Max has a hard time saying anything, as Liz has released laughter inspired by that conversation. “I guess she’s finally okay with us,” Max says when Liz quiets her laughter.  
“I guess so,” Liz agrees catching her breath, “but we don’t have to go if you don’t--  
“I do,” he interjects, “do you?”  
“You’re gonna go and support isobel, right?”  
“Yeah,” he answers setting down the pillows and blanket he grabbed from his closet.   
“Then of course,” she says, “I’d love to, but we’re not going in your jeep.”  
“What’s wrong with my Jeep?!”  
“It’s not a gala ride, Max,” she answers throwing herself on her bed, feeling like a teenager. “We can take my car….”  
They spend the rest of the night talking to each other, finalizing plans for the gala, and rewriting all the almost’s and apprehension between them. Liz is honest about the morning in the desert, why she lied about not having feelings for him. Max admits that he learned Is had wiped her memories because he considered wiping hers so she would leave and not feel the pain of what she had learned. “I wanna be completely honest with you Liz,” he explains, “even about the not so great stuff we--I almost did…I’m not proud of what i asked for in grief or in anger. ”  
“Me, either,” she says, twirling her hair in her fingers. “Love makes you do crazy things, it makes you do beautiful things.”  
“It does,” he says laying himself on the couch, adjusting the pillow behind his head, “so how do you feel about me, Liz?”  
“This,”she breathes, “I feel this…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!


	6. Date night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max and Liz's first date after "Songs about Texas." Away from alien mystery-solving, and troubled sisters, what do Max and Liz talk about?

Liz insists on a pre-gala date. They debated on where to go, considering the places Max feels are crowded enough to not be heard talking about aliens and intimate enough to be close with her. Roswell wasn’t Santa Fe or Albuquerque--there weren’t many options. They opted for Italian on Main Street, far enough from others they tend to see at their usual hang outs, and intimate enough to just be together.   
Liz left work early enough to change because, even though Max thought she looked beautiful in anything, she wanted to get dolled up, as she rarely had the chance. Some of the outfits were hard to consider, as she was still rewriting the memories of what they meant. “Why did I ever get engaged,” she thought to herself, swiping her engagement dress to the left. In the search of something she wanted to have just for Max.   
On hearing Max was taking Isobel out to dinner, Isobel stopped by to trim his hair and help him pick out dress shirt and slacks that didn’t look horrible. “You’re such a small town guy,” she told him as she was rifling through his closet.   
“Yes,” he joked watching her from his bed, “it’s part of my charm…”  
“Uh huh,” Isobel muttered as she found something in the back of his closet, “so glad you’re going out more.”  
He arrived at the Crashdown in his jeep. He walked in, sat at the only empty stool at the counter, pulled out his phone and informed Liz he was waiting for her there. A few minutes later, the entry doorbell chime sounds, and he turns to find her in leggings, a wine colored sweater dress, under her classic leather jacket. Instead of having her hair down as usual, she had loosely braided it, revealing her neck & collarbone.   
“Hey,” he says as he walked towards her.   
“Hey yourself,” she responds taking in his 5 o’clock shadow on his face.   
He follows her out of the crashdown and, as soon as they exit the doors, he bends down and kisses her.   
“Can we walk?” she asks as they break apart to start walking. “I want to enjoy the night sky with you.”  
“Sure,” he says taking her hand.   
She grabs his arm with her other hand, leaning on his shoulder, “What’s new?”  
“A lot and not much at the same time,” he says as they walk, “Isobel told Noah and he took it well, apparently; Alex is still processing everything Michael told him,” he continues as they reach the doors, “I can’t blame him.”  
They continue talking after they’re seated. The fake candlelight on the table set a warm mood and, while they don’t say it, they appreciate the moment stolen from hunting aliens and saving people. They sit at a booth near a window, and Max asks to sit with an eye on the door. She agrees, setting her jacket on the inside of her seat, stretching her neck as their waiter brings menus. “I’m glad we’re doing this,” he says.   
“Me, too,” she agrees, “Have you worked on that piece of writing you had started the other night?”  
He shakes his head as he looks over the menu, “I haven’t made the time, with all that’s going on--but I hope to once we solve that one mystery…”  
She nods, understanding him to mean the fourth alien, “Hmm…”  
“I did move all my books back home yesterday,” he starts changing the subject. I take for granted how much I own until I move them…”  
“Why don’t you buy e-books,” she asks, “less to carry.”  
“Because I love, I love the smell and feel of old books,” he answers eyeing the waiter, “it’s part of the experience…”  
“Are you ready to order?” she asks.   
He nods as the waiter comes their way. She asks for Malbec to accompany her meal and he, the driver, sticks with water, “I’ll have a glass of what she’s having when our dishes arrive,” he explains.   
As the waiter leaves, Max takes Liz’s hands, “you got a manicure.”  
She nods as she watches him study her hands, “I rarely have an excuse to do my nails and,” she says shrugging, “I felt like this was a good excuse. My hands handle papers, computers, and chemical compounds all day...I wear gloves and I just...just forget them.”  
He smooths over the back of her hands with his thumbs. They’re as soft as he expects, though he catches minor scars that he hadn’t seen before. One from an accident in AP Bio, he remembers her knuckle getting to close to the burner. It takes studying them to remind me of how she hissed in response but kept on going. “Your hands,” he begins, “were one of the first reminders of your strength. Like this scar,” he says circling it with his thumb, “I remembered when it happened--  
“I was clumsy and got too close…”  
He nodded, “I mean I know you’re used to kitchen heat, but you acted like it was a knick…  
“It was,” she says, “I’ve accidentally grabbed hot plates,” she continues turning each hand palms up. “I was thirteen when I burned the bottom of my palm,” she says offering it to him.   
“Here,” he asks brushing his pointer against it.   
She nods.   
“I can feel the tenderness,” he says lingering, “still.”  
He then traces the lines in her hand, barely grazing the skin. She adjusts herself in her seat, something about the way he touches her warms other parts of her body she can’t acknowledge in public.   
Max sees how her body reacts to his touch. Instead of removing his fingers, he continues tracing the lines on the palm of her hand, then her fingers. Once he’s touched the tip of her middle finger, he slides his fingers down to her wrist and slowly up her arm, saying, “I can get used to this,” stopping short of her elbow.   
Once he straightens himself up and smiles, she clears her throat, “Get used to what?”  
“Making you nervous,” he answers leaning into his chair and meeting her eyes.   
“That’s not nervousness,” she clarifies.   
“What is it?”  
“Something,” she says looking down as warmth rushes to her face, “we have to wait for.”   
“Wait--  
“Drinks are coming,” Liz says turning towards the waiter coming towards them.   
As the waiter sets the glasses and bread down, he says, “Food will be out shortly”  
Liz turns her head up to the waiter and says“Thank you.”  
When the waiter is out of earshot, Max asks, leaning forward, “What will we have to wait for?  
Liz leans forwards with a smile and whispers in his ears, “the ways we can make each other squirm with our hands…”  
She pulls back into her seat, takes a sip of her wine then breaks off a slice of bread, smiling.  
Max swallows hard, takes a gulp of water.  
Liz slips off her shoe and begins to run her foot up her leg.  
In response, Max dribbles water all down the front of his collared shirt.  
"It's a good thing that's water," Liz chuckles.   
Max can feel his cheeks warm, and he can’t help but wonder why he chose a skin color that shows his emotions so well.


End file.
